Reports from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show that they have not been able to fill the 34,000 detention beds with illegal aliens as the law requires. The department, which serves as the interior enforcement and deportation arm of the Department of Homeland Security, was averaging just 27,000 detainees a day for fiscal 2015 as of Jan. 25. That means that over 20% of ICE's capacity is going unused thus far.
The shortage is reportedly due to President Obama's new policies about the apprehension and detainment of illegal aliens even as the administration faces concerns about those they have released.
According to the Washington Times, President Obama ordered ICE to stop trying to apprehend and deport most illegal aliens, saying that unless they have a serious criminal record or crossed the border since Jan. 1, 2014, they aren't important enough to be worth the expense of deportations.
Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, Jessica Vaughan, said the detention beds are a major issue since it means ICE is releasing some illegal immigrants to be out in the community even as they are awaiting deportation, giving them a chance to abscond — and often to commit crimes while out on the streets.
Vaughan went on note that the number of deportations has significantly dropped. According to ICE data, fewer than 20,000 illegal aliens were deported in December, which is 50 percent lower than its usual pace for the month in previous years.
Another reason detention beds aren't being filled is because state and local government agencies are now refusing to cooperate with federal agents and releasing illegal aliens from prisons and jails rather than holding them for ICE to come pick up.
While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Sacramento (Calif.) County Sheriff Scott Jones said that ICE used to demand that localities hold illegal immigrants for deportation, but under President Obama the agency no longer considers its detainers mandatory, so states and localities now feel free to ignore them.
“The arrest of an individual where ICE’s detainer was not honored may take 30 to 40 man hours since ICE officers must track down the individual and make the arrest out in the community,” an agency official said. “This greatly increases officer and public safety risks as well as greatly decreasing agency efficiency.”
According to ICE records, local governments refused to hold 12,175 illegal aliens in 2014 that the agency had requested be kept for pickup.
